We're thinking of re-fitting our kitchen primarily because it's rather dated and may well detract from enabling us to sell the property in a couple of years time.

Problem is that it's quite large, about 17ft x 17 ft so there's a lot of units to replace.

We've had a look around the sheds and Wickes do some reasonably priced flat pack units but I just wondered if there were any more low cost suppliers. (Due to the size it seems unlikely we could buy an ex-display kitchen and adapt it).

I've spoken to Howdens but their price for a 1000mm high line base unit was almost twice that of Wickes.

Any suggestions?

John.

Cant make any suggestions.. But I fitted a Wickes "to order" kitchen (uses same basic base units as take-away range) just before Christmas. The units/fittings etc all seem very well made, were fairly easy to construct etc..... I would have thought spending a decent amount on good quality "guaranteed" kitchen cabinets would help the value of your house no-end... :-)

not thought of IKEA they area resonable and 25 year guarantee on units?

cheers

I once went into a local kitchen showroom and made an offer for one of their display kitchens which they were about to take out - I think I paid £500 and got top quality units too!

quote:

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Originally posted by INDY BIRD
not thought of IKEA they area resonable and 25 year guarantee on units?

cheers

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You could try Wren Kitchens. They are fairly new to the market but the guy behind the company has benn in it for years. I have fitted a number of Howdens kitchens but get them at trade prices so compare very favourably with others. Wren are coming in under Howdens prices and are more geared to dealing with the public than Howdens are.

youd b better contacting local building firms/kichen fitters, and see if they are ripping out any old kichens. or better still,offer to take the kitchen out for them! that way it saves them a job and saves you the cost of paying them to remove it!
and in a lot of kitchens we do now,especially ones your size,they dont have any wall units,just base units.it makes the room feel much bigger too! its the appliances which cost the money these days.

I'd agree with Richard above, typical "trade" discount at Howden's / Magnet will bring the cost down considerably.

However, as you are "doing up to sell", in all honesty you might not see a return on your expenditure, by the time you add in M&E costs, new worktops and appliances, re-decoration etc.

You can just get new doors to suit old units, fit a new worktop and maybe a sink / taps.

Then at a typical "viewing" it'll be a case of "well we can live with it for now" or "it's not our style, but it's not awful".

Just my 2p

I'll put a vote in for Ikea stuff.
Over the years I have fitted kitchens from most of the DIY sheds.
the Ikea stuff fared better than the others during my in-store destructive testing and go together well. But I wouldn't fancy trying to claim from ANY of the suppliers under a guarentee. They WILL have small print in there somewhere.

As mentioned before, only downside is they are flush to the wall, so take account of that in your planning.
For a simple but stylish kitchen I fitted the plain white doors (not the real cheapies, next range up) and it does look great, and won't date fast. Plus easy to look after. That is in a student rental. It is doing very well indeed............
And to make it look flash, chuck in some contrasting doors or feature to break the lines up. We have oak doors at home, but big stainless drawers, plus some wide but shorter wall units with glass doors. Makes a huge difference.

Can you just put new doors on the old units ? thats the locost way

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Originally posted by jacko
Can you just put new doors on the old units ? thats the locost way

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Just wait till wickes have one of their 30% or whatever off sales. Can't get much cheaper than that. Also helps if the checkout staff miss one of the double base units - I was devastated for them when I noticed that on the receipt

Wickes takeaway kitchen for me! Cheap too in one of their many sales. Quality was quite good although I did glue all the units when I assembled then for extra strength.

Bought decent countertop from EBay and I'm really quite happy with it. I did loads of quotes, Homebase, B&Q, Howdens, Wren, Focus, Ikea and Wickes was one of the cheapest. As Liam said though, I chose a 30% off type deal they had on!

[Edited on 28/3/11 by McLannahan]

Cheap stuff will look tired after a couple of years when you come to sell. You CAN just buy new doors and drawer fronts but check sizes very carefully - the doors I looked at were 1/2 inch smaller than my carcases.

b&q 1000mm base is £48 with the trade discount, and the doors are 10-20 usually. You might be able to blag the discount with someones postcode if you felt lucky?!

If you pick a light coloured kitchen, then you can use the cheaper white bases. If you pick a dark one, it looks daft with white bases so you need to spend more on colour matched ones.

If you can wait and you have a van then sometimes great deals can be found at trade shows. Wait until the Exxcel centre in London or the NEC in birmingham have a TRADE furniture show. They are normally free and many suppliers are from other countries looking to sell to shops in large quantities. Go on the last day of the show in the afternoon. You will often see signs saying 'stand for sale'. At the end of the end of the show companies won't want to ship the items on the stand back to there countries and won't want to pay disposal fees to the venue. This means if you've got a van you can get stuff mega cheap. Last time I go a nice solid oak dining table and six chairs for £100 quid. Admittedly I felt a bit of pratt with a table tied to roof bars of my golf.

Cheepest way I found
(IF you can spare the time)
Buy a few sheets of MDF/Plywood cut 'em up
and build your own. Then buy the doors the Missus like's
If your really clever you could build your own doors.

I thought that Howdens was supposed to be "trade-only" anyway or have they relaxed that after the demise of MFI? I always managed to blag it by telling them that [insert local builders name] had sent me. They were a little bit dearer than Wickes and the B&Q cheapo range but the carcases are pre-assembled and they delivered it free which saved me a lot of time and grief.

Another vote for Ikea. Very strong and good units and if you keep to normal plinth and plain doors, cheaper handles you can get it done very cheap. Their butler style sink looks like an expensive item and we've had no end of compliments on it when it costs not much more than Wickes charge for an ugly stainless unit. Worktop is another area you need to choose cheapish (but get the bull nose where the covering material curves back under rather than ends at a right angle and tends to peel).

I've fitted 5 for friends and family and a few Wickes ones as well and have to say the Ikea is far superior. Plus they've been keeping the same design for years so fit the kitchen out, if you come to sell and note the doors are tired replace again for little cost. You should be able to do a big kitchen on the cheap but not look like it and will still be a benefit when you sell.

Also as said above they are flush to the wall so running services is trickier but makes the cupboards so much bigger. They also do wall units in two heights. A lot of cheap one's don't so you end up with this silly run of cupboards with a huge gap above.

There's often used Ikea kitchens on ebay, so can buy all second hand and then just choose new doors to suit.